Brown charged over hitting wife Houston

SINGER Bobby Brown has been charged with battery in Atlanta, three days after he hit his wife, singer and actress Whitney Houston.

Fulton County police spokesman Kurtis Young said Mr Brown, 34, turned himself in. Mr Brown and Ms Houston left Fulton County Magistrate Court together after they and their attorneys met with police.

Mr Brown is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on January 7.

His lawyer, Maurice Bennett, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his client and Houston were trying to work out the problem “as husband and wife”.

Ms Houston, 40, declined to comment, but her lawyer, Mark Trigg, echoed Bennett’s comments, saying: “she is trying to resolve the matter privately”. She told police on Sunday that Brown had struck her on the left side of her face with an open right hand at the couple’s home near Alpharetta. Mr Brown then went to the airport for a flight to Los Angeles, the police report said. Police said Ms Houston had a bruised cheek and a cut inside her upper lip.

Simple battery is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Normally on a first offence in domestic violence cases, the charge is dismissed if the defendant undergoes counselling.

Mr Brown served seven days in DeKalb County Jail in August for violating his probation for a 1996 drunken driving conviction.

He also served 26 days in a Florida jail in 2000 for an earlier probation violation. Houston and Brown have been married since 1992.

They have a 10-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.